Baker Urges Brexiteers to Get Letters in: ‘You Must Act Now’

Former Brexit minister Steve Baker has urged colleagues wavering on whether to write to the 1922 Committee to call for a vote of no confidence in Prime Minister Theresa May to “act now. Time is short.”

Speaking to a media scrum in Westminster Friday, Mr Baker said: “If colleagues have agreed with me that we cannot tolerate this policy and that if we cannot tolerate this policy that it is time to recognise it is connected with Theresa May as Prime Minister, it is my sorry duty to say that it is time to put the letters in and to have the vote and test the will of the Conservative Party to continue.”

“You must act now. Time is short,” he added.

Steve Baker says he would be “somewhat surprised” if there is no announcement of a vote by end of next week. His message to waiverers: “You must act now. Time is short.” pic.twitter.com/QYuYLbbloO

Speaking afterwards to Sky News’s Beth Rigby, the former junior minister, who resigned from the Cabinet in July over the prime minister’s soft Brexit Chequers plan, said: “I certainly can’t live with this deal and I will vote against it.

Asked who he thought should be lined up to replace May, should there be a vote and if she loses it, he said: “We need someone who is charismatic and determined, who believes in leaving the European Union, who can carry this country through it.”

"I certainly can't live with this deal" – Tory MP @SteveBakerHW explains that it is 'perfectly reasonable and noble' for Brexiteers to stay in the cabinet but they will not be plausible leadership candidates.